Sit Down and Relax - Elliot Frome Explains Video Poker Strategy

• Playing the right machines
• Playing the right strategy
• Knowing what to expect

Each is as important as the others. We all know what happens if one leg is shorter than the other two. When you're talking Video Poker, the only thing you can stick under one leg to get it to stop rocking are dollar bills. If one leg is too much shorter than the other two, well, then you can just expect to fall on your butt.

I've always felt, however, that there is a fourth component. Adding a leg to a three-legged stool is no easy proposition. I'm also not really sure that this fourth component is quite as important as the other three, although I believe it can make a considerable difference. This last component is:

• Playing a game you enjoy

If you don't enjoy the game you are playing, there's a good chance that you'll still find the stool to be rather uncomfortable. That's why, I'd like to think of this fourth component as the seat cushion on the three-legged stool. Let's take a closer look at why playing a game you enjoy is so important to the other three components.

Playing the right machines deals with picking full-pay machines that have a sufficiently high payback or return. If the concept of enjoying the game were completely removed, everyone would be clamoring for the one version of Video Poker with the highest payback. We know this isn't the case, and this isn't only because people don't understand the concept of playing the right machines. If you don't enjoy playing Deuces Wild, then playing it at 100.6% may simply not be better than playing a Full-Pay Jacks or Better paying 99.6%. Over the course of an hour, a person playing max-coin quarters at 500 hands per hour, will cost himself about $6.25 assuming all other things are equal by picking the Jacks or Better game vs. the Deuces Wild. Is your enjoyment worth this amount of money, $6.25 hour?

Of course, $6.25 probably overstates the amount a bit. Because you don't enjoy the game as much, you're much less likely to pay as much attention to the proper strategy. Just a handful of mistakes in your strategy (as opposed to on occasional mistake on a single hand), could easily result in giving back a large chunk of that $6.25. If you enjoy the game, you're much more likely to learn and adhere to the strategy of that game.

Similarly, if you don't enjoy the game, you're not likely to bother to learn what to expect while you're playing. This will lead you to get caught off guard by certain hands or the general flow of the game because you don't know what to expect. Razgus (discarding all 5 cards) will occur about 3.5% of the time in Jacks or Better. They'll occur about 18% of the time in Deuces Wild. Again, if you don't like Deuces Wild, then you won't bother to find this fact out, and as you play, your frustration level will go up. As frustration sets in, you might alter from proper strategy, and again give back a large piece of that $6.25.

If you're a professional player (there are VERY few of these), the need to play only the highest payback machines is paramount. If you're like MOST players, you're a casual or vacation player. While we certainly don't suggest you play poor paying machines strictly because they are fun (usually you can find the same machine with better payouts), we do suggest you factor in your enjoyment into the equation.

After all is said and done, you're going to be sitting on that three-legged stool for a lot of hours. You might want to make sure you're on a comfortable cushion!